Spending Frenzy

I don't know if any of you watched Obama's address to Congress on Tuesday night, but I found myself glued to the TV for the duration of the event. Not because I was so enthralled with excitement about hearing Obama speak, but because I was in such disbelief of what I was hearing. Even though he was constantly interrupted by Pelosi et al and their wide-grinned, thunderous ovations, I think I was able to hear most of the statements that came out of his mouth (More on Pelosi and her botox-induced permasmile another time).

A couple of key points that I will go into more detail on in upcoming posts:

• Obama claimed that he did not want to increase the size of the federal government. I'm not sure how he is going to back that up when his plans call for increased oversight into health care, increased financial services oversight (not to mention the fact that our government, aka you and me, is buying ownership into the private banks), taxpayer-funded R&D on energy reform, etc etc.
  
• Obama said that credit is the lifeblood of our economy. Unfortunately, at this point he is correct, but this has to be changed. I can't wait to write about this one.
• He wants to give tax breaks to 95% of Americans, of which nearly 47% don't pay taxes now, and increase taxes on income earners above 250k, and somehow cut our federal deficit in half. So let me get this straight. He will tax the producers in our economy more heavily, redistribute that wealth to citizens who pay nothing (redistribution of wealth, anyone?), increase spending 2 fold, and somehow cut our deficit in half. I was not a math major, but the numbers don't add up.
  
• He spoke often about three critical areas of concern for our future: education, energy management, and health care overhaul. While I agree that these three areas are of utmost importance, I can't agree that his solutions will be the best solutions for any of them.

What makes matters worse is that Bobby Jindal's Republican response was.... not good. As much as I respect Louisiana's Governor, his performance was forced and came across a bit hollow. If it did not resonate with me, I can't see how others to the left of me would have bought into it.